


Staying Golden

by hermione_vader



Category: Daredevil (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Daredevil Spoilers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 14:46:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3814426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hermione_vader/pseuds/hermione_vader
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spoilers for S1.  Karen still can't fully get a grip on some of the choices she's made, so Heimdall decides to help her out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Staying Golden

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place immediately post-Season 1 for Daredevil and some time post-Thor 2.

After Fisk was indicted, Karen thought the nightmares would stop. They do not stop, but they do change. Instead of dreaming that she’s found out, she dreams of making the choice all over again. She thinks of another way to get away or to shut the man up, any other way, but there is none. So she empties the bullets into James Wesley’s body every time, the number increasing with each dream—five or six at first, then twenty, fifty, a hundred. She can’t help but count each time. Now she’s counting well past two hundred. When she doesn’t think the gun could possibly fire another bullet, it fires, and she jolts awake feeling wired instead of drowsy. She looks out her window and sees only darkness.

Karen gets up, too tired of nightmares to sleep anymore. When she reaches the kitchen, a hulking figure already sits at her kitchen table.

“Did you sleep well, Miss Page?” a deep, oddly British voice asks.

“I-I-I…” The words sit in her throat.

“I can see you did not, otherwise, you would still be abed,” the voice says.

She switches the light on as quickly as she can. The figure turns out to be a very big black man dressed in golden armor. He looks like an action figure grown to full-size by some mad but well-meaning scientist.

“Who do you work for?” she blurts out.

“I work for the All-Father of Asgard and for the safety of all the realms,” the man states.

Asgardian. Like the one with the hammer. And the one who brought the aliens. If this man is telling the truth. “All-Father? Is that what you people call your mafia dons?”

“No. He is our ruler, as Midgard has its presidents and kings and mayors and so forth. I serve him by watching all the realms. I see all, or almost all. One or two things seem to slip past me these days.” The man takes his golden helmet off and sets it on the kitchen table. 

“And I was one of those things?” Karen asks.

“No, I saw you. I still see you. I see your friends Matthew and Foggy as well. And I see your enemies.”

Karen pulls out the other chair and sits across from him at the table. “Are you here to help me or kill me, Mr…?”

“Heimdall. And no. I am not meant to interfere in the affairs of other realms. However, in light of recent events, I felt I must begin to make exceptions.” He pauses, and Karen notices that he has gold eyes. Not golden brown, but purely golden. “I am not here to kill you, Miss Page. I only want you to know that that man’s death was drop in the bucket of blood I’ve seen during my watch. I don’t believe you are cruel or cunning, as so many murderers I’ve seen are. You are someone escaped from a dark corner. No more, no less.”

Karen waits for a sense of relief. It never comes. Instead, her insides feel tight, like they’re twisting themselves into a hundred knots. “Who are you to say that? Who are you to tell me what I am?”

“I am merely a watcher, Miss Page.” His gaze is soft and understanding.

“A watcher? So you’re an intergalactic version of the NSA? And that’s if anything you say is true and you’re not one of Fisk’s goons or escaped from Bellvue.” She leans forward and lowers her voice. “You’re telling me it’s okay that he died. You’re telling me that he deserved to die so that I could live.”

“In my experience, no one can truly deserve death, since it comes from us all.”

“So Wesley’s death means nothing. I guess Ben Urich’s death means nothing, too.”

Heimdall’s eyes look steely now. “Miss Page—“

“I don’t care what you have to say. It all may mean nothing to you, but Hell’s Kitchen has lost people on both sides—on all sides, and if it was all for nothing, than I just…I can’t…” She wipes a tear from her right cheek.

“All we are in the end is dust and sand.” His face grows solemn, if not quite sad.

Karen wants to stop crying, she does, but the tears keep coming. “Did you really come here to make me feel better? Because you’re pretty bad at that.”

“I came here to tell you the truth, Karen.” He reaches out and rests his hands on top of hers.

She pulls her hands off the table. “Don’t touch me! And get out before I call someone!”

“Your friend the Daredevil?” His golden eyes look skeptical now.

“He’s…he’s not my friend, not exactly…” Karen stands up. “You know who he is.”

“I know many secrets, Miss Page. But that man’s secret is not mine to tell. And neither is yours.”

With that, Heimdall disappeared in a whoosh of color and light.

Karen sat back down at the table and stared at the spot where the golden man had been. She was too angry to cry now and too heartsick to drink. She rested her head on the table and eventually fell asleep there, hating the color gold all the while.


End file.
